I wish I could say today was as good of a day as yesterday, but unfortunately it was not. At least it is the final day of treatment. Tomorrow he is going to be released from the hospital back to the hotel. They are going to send him home with some prescriptions, thank God. I don’t think I could handle him being without anything to help with the nausea and whatnot.

Chris was in the bathroom when I got to the hospital today. He finally had a bowel movement and made the nurses happy. They wanted to make sure his bowels were still working properly. Without eating much there’s rally nothing to poop out. The smell of it was so foul that it turned Chris’ stomach. I got a whiff of it too and boy did it smell horrid. Chemo does that to you, makes your vomit, urine, and poo smell like death warmed over. So needless to say he had some problems with nausea this morning. Chem can make a person very sensitive to smell and make it hard to taste food. They gave Chris some Reglan for his nausea this morning. I guess hes been on a combination of 3 different kinds, sorry I can’t remember them all for you.

It turned out Chris’ potassium levels were low. So they gave him 40 mEq (milliequivalents) through his IV. I guess a banana has about 10 mEq, and he did eat one for breakfast. Chris did eat some lunch and dinner today. We still kept it pretty light, and certain foods turned his stomach (steamed broccoli, salad, cottage cheese). He was able to handle grapes, a turkey sandwich, coffee cake, orange sherbet, a peanut butter cookie, and some slices of cheese. I have to be careful when I go grocery shopping. I want to get foods high in iron but he’s probably not going to want to eat certain things.

Chris had issues today with blurred vision. We went for a few rolls around his unit and he had a hard time seeing anything in the distance and things close up were blurry. The nurses haven’t heard of anyone having vision problems from the Cyclophosphamide, but they looked into it. Strangely enough after Chris wiped his face with a wash cloth his vision improved. Not 100% but still and improvement. This is when we decided Chris was in need of a sponge bath. Chemo gets into all of your body secretions, tears and sweat included. So this may have been the source of his issue. Chris hadn’t showered since Wednesday night. He felt much, much better after the sponge bath that I gave him. He felt so good in fact, that h mentioned to Laura his nurse that it should be required as part of the FDA protocol to shower or take a sponge bath a few days into it. He can’t take a full blown shower yet because of his central IV. It can’t get wet. Once it’s healed more they put a clear plastic type bandage on it and that can get wet.

Around 5:30-6pm Chris made the comment to the nurse that he was finally starting to feel better. Just in time for the chemo! LOL, go figure. At 7:17pm they started his last dose of the HiCy. Chris took it pretty well. Just a bad headache and a feeling of being on fire. I wet down a paper towel and put it on his forehead and that helped a little at first. They gave him some more Oxycodone to help with his headache and muscle spasms as well as his Baclofen. He fell asleep for a bit after that. We were watching Family Guy and American Dad on the TV. I am thankful that I set the alarm on my cell phone for 9:45pm because I fell asleep too. I set the alarm so that I know when to call the shuttle to come pick me up before they are done for the night. He was still due for more meds and to have his blood drawn after I left.

So Chris gets released some time tomorrow. Who knows when. It can take hours from what I’ve experienced with my Dad and we have Rxs to pick up from the pharmacy. It’ll be good to have Chris back “home.” It will be much easier for me to do these updates at a decent time.

I am beat, we’ve had one hell of a week! I am off to bed, for Chris wants me at the hospital at 8am.

God I hope you get better dude. It’s pretty much as simple as that. Chenell, once again thank you so much for thinking of others when you post. It must be hard to think about anything but Chris and what he’s going through. He would walk through fire to get rid of this crap. God Bless and Good luck.

I was looking through this website and realized that I know you. Apparently no one in Denver knows the real Chris. If they did they would probably leave you sitting at the bottom of a very steep hill in your wheelchair. The Chris I knew was a thief and a liar. I also noticed that you are pretending to be a Christian now that you need the sympathy of others to help you through life. It is really to bad that god gave you this disease, it just gives you another excuse to use the people who love you. I am also sorry that your wife has no idea how many people you have hurt while serving your own totally selfish desires. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to watch you suffer through this terrible disease!

Chris’ Reply:

First, I’ve never denied that I’ve deserved this disease for what I’ve done in my past.

Second, I’ve never denied that I was a piece of shit in my past.

Third, don’t you tell me I don’t believe in God and don’t tell me I do it because I need the sympathy. I believed in God before MS, and will believe in God after MS. If you believed in God, you wouldn’t have left such a comment!

Fourth, I cannot take what you say seriously because I know you got beat up by a roommate over a drug deal not so long ago.

Lastly, I have cleaned up my life over the last 8 years. It it apparent you have not. I have fully disclosed to my wife what I was like before I got clean. My visitors and I will pray for you as well.

Tell Chris the worse is over. He will feel better and better every day. I have to say I feel pretty lucky having gone through this and having no where near the problems. I did the proceedure as an out patient and had a pretty easy go of it. I have my six month check up on the 26th. I will look you guys up to see how you are doing. In regards to food try to give him fruit smoothies with a protein additive. It will help to keep all his necessary vitamin and mineral levels up and the protien will help to give his muscles the necessary fuel to keep working. Say high to chris for me.

Well I’ve only known Chris from ThisisMS, and I only know Chris as a loving, helpful guy that goes out of his way to get information out about things that help people. I wasn’t alwasys a saint either, so here’s to you bro’ and here’s a big *&%$#@ for Donald. He sounds jealous if you ask me. He just hasn’t changed and doesn’t want to allow anyone else to either.

My response is not to accuse or or ask you to feel bad about your current reality. I opened this dialog in order to ask you to offer forgiveness for past sins. Nobody wamts to add to this burden that you should never feel responsible for at this point in your life. Revover your past so you can truely have the strength to face tthe present.

Hey first and foremost the Olive Branch is accepted if it truly is in peace. Although the rational you use is wise, and changed since we ran around, your delivery style is brash and in your face as it always has been. I remember we all loved that about you and I can still see it is a strong, strong trait. lol

Since I’ve woken up from that MS induced haze, and the chemo, on Tues my brain started firing better than it has in years. I can look back at the MRI of my brain and hope the reason I acted so stupid is MS and the big lesions in my brain in the temporal lobe is too blame. BS it’s too easy.

The reason I started to fix the past before I came to MD is because I realize I have a second chance very, very few people get. I’m Christian now (8 years), but not religious and unfortunately it still hasn’t made me perfect. Christian does not mean Perfectian and it would be to much pressure. It’s given me a conscience though and it can suck. Small price to pay.

I’m working on fixing the past, but you start it out like paying bills. Smallest first. I got some bigger bills, but they take more time. My emotional credit matters to me now. I recently found out something else from the past and I’ve actually taken steps to rectify it.

No offense but I’m well aware of what the hell is going on. Got real clear on Tuesday around 3 p.m. If I screwed you over to, please accept my apology. I have no idea why you would be mad at me unless you were playing Superman for someone else’s problems with me. If that is, look at me for what I am now and trying to be and accomplish. The old Chris …ehem “Redd” died in July of 1999. I shot him in a ditch.

Take peace knowing I’m doing what I can as quickly as I can to make the past go away, but I refuse to let it dictate what could still be a wonderful future. I tried to buy happiness once and it’s impossible to do. 10 years is a long time and I hope and pray no one needed me to be happy. I hope as I go along and right the wrongs it’s a happy surprise to these folks and not a lifesaving necessity. I guess it would be OK if it changes their lives for the better. I look more forward to having the past gone, than a Boston priest does. LOL I

Next time I get back maybe we can have a beer if your not going to start a fight! I wouldn’t hate that…the beer part! LOL

Chris, my heart is filled with hope! I praise God that I found this website, because I’ve been following Revimmune, and here we get an idea of its reality as a procedure. Thank you SO MUCH for considering those of us who need some hope.

I understand a trial will begin in Chicago sometime in the next 6 months. Chicago is only a 6-7 hour drive for me.

Finally, I turned my life around 8 years ago, too. Interesting coincidence. I am a recovering drunk and addict. I couldn’t do it alone, though, and committed myself to AA. It not only saved my life and taught me how to cope with daily BS, it brought me back to God.

Good luck to you both, you and Chenell. I pray that you continue to improve, and that you grow toward being the man God always intended for you.